UPDATE: 10,000 Hours on the Web!

We are jumping into the exciting world of video game development with both feet and a unique situation. We've built ourselves a business training site that pays the bills, but leaves us with free time. We're going to use that free time to do something far more worthwhile: Making video games!

This project is not going to fund those games, but to fund the documentation of our journey into game development. Drawing inspiration from theDan Plan, we are going to devote 10,000 hours (supposedly the amount of time necessary to master any complex skill) to video game development and see how we do. If the project is successfully funded, we'll be able to devote some of our time weekly to updating our site with detailed blogs, and looking for your input. For 10,000 hours, you'll get to see what actually goes on in the day-to-day life of indie developers, and we'll get to devote time in our week to actively involving you in our process. At the end of it all, we want to compile our blogs into a book to publish.

10,000 hours comes out to about five years, and a lot can change in that time. Maybe we'll grow, and add new employees to our roster. Maybe we'll expand into a different form of gaming, who knows? It's an exciting time in game design as we see the continued shift from physical to digital distribution becoming the norm, and we think it will be valuable to have a record of this time! All we know is that we want to share whatever happens to us with you.

We want to make backing us worthwhile. For every $10 you back us for, you get 1,000 hours of everything we create.

You'll get:

Access to our alphas and betas (early versions of the games)

Screenshots

Wallpapers

Blog entries

A single-run art print of something we made from the last 1000 hours.

Best of all: You'll get, for free, any finished game we create in those thousand hours.

On the PC, on your tablet or phone, we'll get you a free copy.

Back us for $20, and you'll get 2,000 hours of finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, wallpapers, blog entries, and a total of two art prints! Back us for 40 dollars, and you get 4,000 hours worth of content, and four art prints!

Back us for $100 , and you'll get the full 10,000 hours project's output, and ten art prints. Plus, you'll have our eternal gratitude. So much gratitude, that we'll put you in one of our games, immortalized forever! Maybe as a character, maybe as an item, we'll work with you on the details.

We've brainstormed some options for even higher amounts, too! Let us know if you have any questions.

So far, we're a team of two.

Our founder is John-Michael Davis, a computer science devotee with a BA in information systems and an MBA with an emphasis in project management. He's spent the last year teaching himself to code, and has been focusing on AI development. His background is in business consulting, but he's been an avid gamer his entire life.

Our media guy is Steven Robinson, a BS and a BFA graduate in digital art. He spent his teen years messing around with little game projects, and he has a passion for pixel art. For his BFA thesis, he even put a very recognizable piece of game art in a gallery!

Together, the both of us have a pretty huge breadth of gaming interest. For now though, we're keeping it simple with the Impact engine. Impact uses HTML5, so we'll be able to put any games we create with it on tablets and PCs and Macs and Linux and everything. Eventually, we're excited to move on to an engine with a lot more complexity!

Our first game is called Deceit.

* Please note: The following is a very basic sandbox level, and is in no way a reflection of what the final game will be like.

** Amazing is an entirely relative and probably profoundly untrue adjective in the case of the 'features' below

It tells the story of a detective in a 1920s-inspired steampunk universe, whose partner is killed. His investigation into the murder plunges him into the depths of his city, and he discovers that things aren't nearly as simple as he once thought they were. To keep things simple at first, Deceit is going to be a platformer, with Metroidvania elements. We're using the game as a training tool for ourselves and we want to tell the story in a trilogy, which will let us ramp up the graphics and the complexity in each game.

We'll be posting more images and videos about Deceit here and on tiger-sheep.com as we make them, so be sure to check back!

After Deceit, we're excited to work on some other projects that we have in mind! But we'll save talking about those until later...

"And a spider!"

FAQ

Have a question?
If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10 or more
About $10

1,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door! (international customers add $3 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $20 or more
About $20

2,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (two total, international customers add $6 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $30 or more
About $30

3,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (three total, international customers add $9 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $40 or more
About $40

4,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (four total, international customers add $12 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $45 or more
About $45

LIMITED PAX SPECIAL: The first 10 backers get 10% off! 5,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (five total, international customers add $15 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $50 or more
About $50

5,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (five total, international customers add $15 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $60 or more
About $60

6,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (six total, international customers add $18 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $70 or more
About $70

7,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (seven total, international customers add $21 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $80 or more
About $80

8,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (eight total, international customers add $24 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $90 or more
About $90

9,000 hours of our output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (Nine total, international customers add $27 for delivery) All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $90 or more
About $90

LIMITED PAX SPECIAL: The first 10 backers get 10% off! The full 10,000 hours of the experiment's output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (ten total, international customers add $30 for delivery) As our thanks for backing us for the full amount of time, we'll also put you in one of our games, either as an item or a character/npc! All game content will be delivered digitally.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

The full 10,000 hours of the experiment's output, including any finished games, alphas, betas, screenshots, and wallpapers the company creates. Plus, a backers-only art print sent to your door every 1,000 hours! (ten total, international customers add $30 for delivery) As our thanks for backing us for the full amount of time, we'll also put you in one of our games, either as an item or a character/npc! All game content will be delivered digitally.